Ezidebit invests for Australian businesses to grow

Roadblocks removed to optimise cashflow in tight economy.

As simple as it is, reducing the amount of outstanding payments can make a good business a great business and that is where Ezidebit helps businesses of all sizes.

(PRWEB) November 30, 2012

Inadequate cash flow management is the standout reason why so many Australian businesses fail or are put under financial pressure, and why so many Australian businesses cannot affordably fund expansion, according to Charlie Holland, CEO of electronic payment services company Ezidebit. Specialising in the removal of roadblocks for businesses, Ezidebit's payment services increase cash flow while reducing the cost of administration for thousands of businesses.

Now processing in excess of $1.7 billion per annum for more than 12,000 clients across all business sectors and spanning all businesses sizes, Holland has seen his company successfully morph from a direct debit povider into the country’s leading cashflow management powerhouse with an underlining priority helping Australian businesses grow.

He said Australian firms now average some 53 days* to settle accounts – for many, this exceeds agreed payment periods. He adds, "As simple as it is, reducing the amount of outstanding payments can make a good business a great business and that is where Ezidebit helps businesses of all sizes."

“Prior to the global financial crisis in 2007/8, businesses could fund growth and investment through easier credit terms supported by buoyant revenue projections,” he said. “The tightening of credit availability and a general slowing of the economy has meant many have not been able to fund their growth aspirations through business credit alone. Optimising cash flow has not only become a necessity for survival but a necessity for funding growth,” he said.

“In the majority of cases, businesses have very limited control or management on when their customers pay their invoices and in a tight economy businesses of all sizes need to be vigilant about being paid on time." *Dun & Bradstreet’s Trade Payments Analysis for June 2012 shows that the average payment period for Australian business has expanded to 53.6 days. In the majority of cases this is because customers don’t adhere to invoice terms, be they 7 days, 30, 60 or longer – in fact payments made within the standard 30-day term fell by 16.5%.”

“Then, we have ASIC’s recent figures showing 40% of Australian businesses fail because of inadequate cash flow. Aged payments can be the closure calling card for businesses of any size and this resonates strongly for us here at Ezidebit,” he said.

“These figures are worrying, they are a result of serious but avoidable roadblocks in Australian business operations, and we aim to remove these,” he said.

“A part of our success has been our focus on making the payment handling as easy and seamless for our clients as possible. We have achieved this by our ability for the Ezidebit Payment engine to be embedded into customer management software, resulting in one system to manage all the customer interactions including the processing and receipting of their payments. As a result, we’ve seen significant growth in our client base, revenue and our team.” said Holland.

Ezidebit was the first in the sector to offer integrated payment solutions via software partnerships, and continues to break new ground in payment services and ecommerce solutions.

"For any service or product to be successful it has to have benefits for all stakeholders. Ezidebits range of products and services not only support the business but they provide benefits to the businesses customer as well, by providing easy, safe and convenient ways to pay anytime. Direct debt for example locks down payment dates, however the amounts to be debited can vary depending how much the customer owes at that time. It takes what can be a very time-heavy administrative function away from both company and customer, freeing both for other tasks."

The company is also seeing an expansion of its services from its traditional SME roots into larger enterprise organisations. This growth is not just attributed to greater utilisation of Ezidebit's payment services, but the automatic transfer of Ezidebit's high compliance and security standards.

“Ezidebit is one of the few company's in Australia to hold the Payment Cards Industry highest accreditation for the data security and storage of credit card information, PCI DSS level 1,” said Holland.

“Having experienced the complexity and cost in the achieving ongoing accreditation we understand the value this provides our customers and this presents a key and affordable point of difference for our services.”

Ezidebit has seen revenue increase three-fold over the last few years, growth Holland attributes to helping its customers survive and thrive.

About Ezidebit:
Established in 1998, Brisbane headquartered Ezidebit offered the first specialised automated direct debit and credit card transactions service in Australia. A team of over 75 people deliver the Ezidebit services to businesses across multiple industries, including childcare, Leisure, telecommunications, finance and technology companies. Privately managed by a board of directors, the company is one of the few Australian outsourced payment providers with an Australian Financial Services License and the highest level.

Australia's leading provider of outsourced payment solutions, Ezidebit’s priority is to increase the cash flow lifeblood of Australian businesses by helping business apply a range payment methods to increase cash flow but also to streamline the accounts receivable process to drive down costs. Ezidebit helps its 12,000 clients to apply a suite of payment products to solve their particular issues, these include both on line and off line applications of Direct Debit , BPAY, real time credit card for web and IVR phone payment systems and other ecommerce services. These are scalable as a suite of applications for large organisations seeking a fully integrated process with their enterprise management system or for cash hungry SME's seeking a simple and affordable means of collecting payments utilising Ezidebit's secure on line portal.

*Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Report – Australian Small Business 2011